Raising a Compassionate & Eco-Conscious Generation

Today we need a healthy generation filled with love, compassion and concern for the only home we have – planet Earth. How can we be aware and help make our children be conscious of this? Our facilitators Kommal Shah & Vineeta Punjabi share their views.

‘Nutella’

Kids, and even adults, love Nutella. However, it’s best to stay away from the store-bought one and make it at home instead. It’s super easy and delicious too. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup hazelnuts
• 1 cup pitted soft dates
• ¼ cup organic cacao powder

Method:

Roast the hazelnuts in a preheated oven at 200 °C for 8-10 minutes, until the hazelnuts glisten with oil. Cool them down until they are just warm to the touch. Take them in a grinder jar and grind, scraping down the sides of the jar at intervals, until you obtain a smooth butter.

Add the dates and cacao powder and grind it into a smooth paste while scraping the sides down. Do not add water.

Store in an airtight jar.

Serves 10-12

Food For The Mind

FACEBOOK SUPPORT GROUP

If you love Facebook, then join us to be supported on your plant based journey. We are offering two possibilitie

1. SHARAN India is SHARAN’s main Facebook page which you can like and follow for getting useful daily updates and news from the plant based health world. You will also get news about the latest SHARAN events, see testimonials, and more.

2. SHARAN’s Vegan Support Group is an open support group to know more about vegan/plant-based lifestyle. Here you can ask questions and share inspiring stories, tips, recipes, etc.

All our doctors and presenters will be here to answer your questions and give you tips. If you have attended our events join this group to be a part of our family.

Please like the main SHARAN page and join the group(s) applicable to you.

Healthy Kids

One of the best things you can give your children is good health. However wealthy we are, good health is priceless. Lately, lifestyle diseases are affecting even the younger age groups. Wrong eating habits are the main culprit. So, now is the time to invest in your child’s health, before it’s too late. The need for health education has become more urgent than ever.

What can you do to ensure that your kids do not fall into this trap? Read on to find some ideas. 1. Lead them by example Everyone fondly remembers the meals made by their mothers when they were young. Children enjoy meals made with love. When you make delicious healthy meals, they are bound to relish them. However, if you consume fast food and colas, your children would want them too! Kids do what their parents do. The option to teach your children to eat healthfully is in your hands.

2. Share knowledge in thought-provoking ways Whenever you read some interesting health news in the newspaper or magazines, share it with them. Watch films on health, perhaps as a family. Show them some short health videos that are freely available on YouTube to reinforce your point.

3. Teach them to read labels When they choose to buy something, get them to start reading the labels. Google the ingredients they don’t understand. You will be surprised at what goes into packaged foods, sometimes in the name of ‘health’!

4. Take them to farms/farmers’ markets This is the best way for them to appreciate the food that Mother Nature gives us. When they see how food is actually grown and buy it themselves, they feel much more involved.

5. Cook together Getting both boys and girls in the kitchen to do some cooking together is such a great way to spend time as a family. Kids begin to value the food they eat when they realise that a lot of effort goes into the meal that is laid on the table. It also ensures that they will be able to make their own meals, when required.

6. Eat out less frequently In earlier times, eating out was a special treat. Today most of us eat something out every day! Cooking at home might soon become a long-lost skill. So, slowly and steadily reduce the number of times you eat out. And when you do eat out, choose the restaurant carefully and order sensibly.

7. Be smart. Get creative in the kitchen Invest time in learning tips and tricks to make your meals healthy. Make your own sauces and dressings. You don’t need to announce that there is no oil or sugar or dairy in the dish. If the food is presented well, most of the time they won’t even know the difference! Make green wraps with spinach and pink wraps with beetroot, and stuff them with the filling that your kids love. Present a fruit platter beautifully decorated and they will want to eat it! Serve salads in glasses. Make an interesting new recipe at least once a week.

8. Take them to visit hospitals Help them make the connection between food, sickness and hospitals.

9. Have a circle of healthy friends If all your kid’s friends are eating healthy, they will start eating healthy too. Make the peer pressure a positive one. Get their friends’ mothers together and work out a plan. It’s not a rule to serve junk food at birthday parties!

10. Volunteer to help at your child’s school School admins are so occupied looking after other things, that most would appreciate your help in getting health awareness going at the school. Organise health talks and workshops by professionals for parents and students.

11. Don’t be a nag Kids will eat when they are hungry. Allow them the pleasure of listening to their bodies and feeling hunger. And avoid deciding how much they should eat. Let them learn to eat according to their hunger.

12. Keep healthy treats easily available Prepare homemade healthy treats with organic ingredients. Keep fruits, nuts and seeds handy so that your kids can munch on them when they are hungry. Keep addictive packaged foods out of the house.

13. Get their vitamin D & B12 tested Despite all the healthy habits that we may teach them, many may have deficiencies in vitamins B12 and D due to the highly sanitised and indoor lifestyles we lead. We have seen even four-year-olds with low levels. So do check these out and supplement if necessary.